Mrs Isabella Mary Beeton

1836–1865

Mrs Beeton; née Isabella Mary Mayson born in March 1836 and universally known by her married name of Mrs Beeton was the author of the 1861 volume, Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management THE classic Victorian cookbook. She is often regarded as the most famous of all British cookery writers.

Isabella was born at 24 Milk Street in Cheapside, London. Her father, Benjamin Mayson, died when she was young and her mother, Elizabeth Jerram later married Henry Dorling, who was a widower and had four children of his own. They lived in Epsom, Surrey where Henry was Clerk of Epsom Racecourse. Isabella herself was educated in Heidelberg in Germany for two years where she became, by all accounts, an accomplished pianist. Subsequently she returned to her stepfather's home in Epsom.

Her future husband, Samuel Orchard Beeton was also born in Milk Street, and despite Isabella's move to Epsom their respective mothers had remained in contact. On a subsequent visit to London, Isabella was introduced to her future husband, Samuel, who, by that time had become a publisher of books and popular magazines. They married on 10 July 1856 at Epsom Parish Church. In August of that year they moved into their first home, a large Italianate property at 2 Chandos Villas on the Woodridings Estate in Hatch End. Subsequently Isabella began to pen articles on cookery and household management for her husband's publications.

Isabella and Samuel's first child, Samuel Orchart, was born in May 1857 but died of croup in August of that year. In September 1859, their second son, also named Samuel Orchart, was born. Between 1859 and 1861, she wrote a monthly supplement to The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine and in October 1861, the supplements were published as a single volume: The Book of Household Management Comprising information for the Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-Maid, Butler, Footman, Coachman, Valet, Upper and Under House-Maids, Lady’s-Maid, Maid-of-all-Work, Laundry-Maid, Nurse and Nurse-Maid, Monthly Wet and Sick Nurses, etc. etc.—also Sanitary, Medical, & Legal Memoranda: with a History of the Origin, Properties, and Uses of all Things Connected with Home Life and Comfort.

The family moved from heir house in Hatch End in the autumn of 1861. In December of the same year their son was taken ill with scarlet fever while on holiday in Brighton. He died on New Year's Eve. Mrs. Beeton gave birth to two other sons, Orchart (on New Year's Eve in 1863) and Mayson Moss (in January 1865). However, it was the day after the birth of her fourth child, in January 1865, Isabella contracted puerperal fever. She died a week later, aged 28. Her widower lived for another twelve years and died of tuberculosis in June 1877 at the age of 46.

Isabella's husband, himself ill, wrung with grief, and in financial trouble, had to sell the copyright in 1867. A second edition, with some input from Sam, was published in 1869. There have been a great many subsequent editions, departing more and more from the original.

Both husband and wife are buried at West Norwood Cemetery in south London under a simple, unadorned, headstone.

Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management

Though its full title of the volume was: Beeton's Book of Household Management Comprising information for the Mistress, Housekeeper, Cook, Kitchen-Maid, Butler, Footman, Coachman, Valet, Upper and Under House-Maids, Lady’s-Maid, Maid-of-all-Work, Laundry-Maid, Nurse and Nurse-Maid, Monthly Wet and Sick Nurses, etc. etc.—also Sanitary, Medical, & Legal Memoranda: with a History of the Origin, Properties, and Uses of all Things Connected with Home Life and Comfort the volume quickly became know more succinctly as: Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. It was essentially a guide to running a complete Victorian household, and provided advice on fashion, childcare, animal husbandry, poisons, the management of servants, science, religion, and industrialism.

The book comprises of 1 112 pages in total and 900 of these contain recipes. As a result the volume is also popularly known as Mrs Beeton's Cookbook. Unusually for the time, most of the recipes were illustrated with coloured engravings. It was also the first book to show recipes in the format that is, in essence, still used to this day. The book was intended as a guide of reliable information for the aspirant middle classes.

Sometimes, it is said that many of the recipes were actually plagiarised from earlier writers (including Eliza Acton [indeed, 150 of her recipes do appear in Mrs Beeton's book]), but the Beetons never claimed that the book's contents were original. Indeed, on the cover Mrs Beeton is described as the 'editor' of the volume and in today's parlance could be described as its 'compiler'.

Perhaps most startling is that Mrs Beeton was only 21 when she began work on the volume. It was Mrs Beeton's mission to provide reassuring advice on culinary matters for the new British middle classes who had previously little or no experience of running large households. Even today the book gives a charming and historically-important insight into Victorian domestic management.

Even the recipes are becoming more relevant in today's more frugal times where interest in more traditional cooking methods is growing.

It's this site's aim to provide the original text of all the Beeton recipes and to provide the modern cook with a current redaction of the recipe. You can also find more recipes from the Victorian period in this site's Victorian recipes page.

With the following link you can go directly to the Book of Household Management analytical index